


Aristocatch

by pancat



Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Friendship, Games, Gen, Multi, Some Swearing, and ngl but i see them as one big gay cuddle puddle, i see them all as going absolutely FERAL once theyre in a friend group together, inspired by gay-mentality!!, is this crack?? might be, like everyone/everyone sorry that's just what makes the serotonin, not one headcanon in particular i just kinda took the feeling and ran with it, this is mostly about them being friends!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 18:41:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24760240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pancat/pseuds/pancat
Summary: After the Missile Crisis, the blue team has learned from experience what it really means to be in Akko's friend group -- abandoning all sense of propriety, dignity, and personal space. Oh, and games. Lots of games.They're slowly learning how to deal with it.A short work I wrote inspired by the headcanons of GayMentality!
Relationships: Atsuko "Akko" Kagari & Amanda O'Neill, Atsuko "Akko" Kagari & Everyone, Atsuko "Akko" Kagari & Sucy Manbavaran & Lotte Yanson, Constanze Amalie von Braunschbank Albrechtsberger & Jasminka Antonenko & Amanda O'Neill, Diana Cavendish & Atsuko "Akko" Kagari, Diana Cavendish & Hannah England & Barbara Parker, Hannah England & Atsuko "Akko" Kagari & Barbara Parker, [Minor] Diana Cavendish/Atsuko "Akko" Kagari, [Minor] Hannah England/Amanda O'Neill/Barbara Parker, [Minor] Sucy Manbavaran/Lotte Yanson
Comments: 17
Kudos: 154





	Aristocatch

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first fic so pls go easy on me haha
> 
> you can also find me on tumblr!  
> https://pancat-n-sausage.tumblr.com/

“It’s a nice change of pace, seeing them all get along.”

Professor Ursula fumbled with her books, turning to the voice. Headmistress Holbrooke approached her with a group of faculty members in tow, eyes on the group of students lounging about on the grass and a serene smile on her face. “But I’ll imagine it’s a test of patience every day for Diana and her team,” she chuckled.

The young professor turned to the girls in question, then smiled. There in the courtyard sat the red, green, and blue teams, mingling and relaxing together, all engaged in some sort of task. Akko’s voice was loudest, as usual, practicing her flying and cheering when she managed something new ( _ “Look! Look, Diana, I’m moving!” _ ). Diana herself was enjoying a cup of tea on a blanket with Lotte and Sucy, turning for a moment to offer congratulations, and Lotte sent a small cheer before returning to explaining the use of each of the plants she grew at home to Sucy, who nodded thoughtfully. Amanda leaned back in her chair, legs up on a nearby table.

“Akko, seriously? You call that snail’s pace  _ moving? _ Lemme show you how it’s done.” Amanda moved to get up, though Diana stopped her with a look.

“Let her practice it, Amanda. She’ll get it,” she chided, sending another look of encouragement Akko’s way.

Akko smiled gratefully, immediately moving faster. She hovered over to each of her friends as she circled the courtyard, saying hi excitedly and eliciting small laughs and hellos. Hannah looked up from where she and Constanze were tinkering with a Stanbot — not that she actually knew enough to help, but she could at least hand the girl tools and such as she worked — and rolled her eyes with a smile and sarcastic applause. Barbara laughed and followed suit, then finished pouring herself, Jasminka, and Hannah some more tea before walking over to where Akko landed, tea in hand.

Akko began to explain something animatedly to her as Professor Ursula watched on fondly, placing a hand on her cheek. The Headmistress waited patiently for a response, and upon realizing this the young teacher flushed and chuckled apologetically. “I know what you mean. I remember a time when they could hardly stand being around Akko. Their friendship is definitely welcome. But Akko and the girls can be so much to handle that I’m surprised Diana and her team can even keep up,” she explained. She held her chin, looking lost in thought before laughing again, eyes shut tight. “And some of the games they manage to make up — oh, I don’t think I’d be able to handle it.”

The Headmistress subtly perked up at this. “Oh? What sort of games, Chariot?”

It was clear to the rest of the faculty that the Headmistress was having too much fun with this. But if Professor Ursula noticed, she didn’t comment on it; rather, the shy teacher froze, hand slapped over her mouth and eyes darting to the girls on the grass. “Oh it’s — it’s nothing. I don’t know if I should talk about it after all,” she muttered nervously, eyes still glued to her students.

Professor Finnelan raised a brow, but Holbrooke sent an amused smile Ursula’s way. “They can’t possibly hear you from over there, Chariot dear. Do your old teacher a favor and humor me, won’t you? I like to know what my students are up to.”

The young professor tore her gaze away from the courtyard, sharing a small, surprised smile with Holbrooke, though she still sent furtive glances to her left. “Well you see, it’s...” She lowered her voice, leaning in conspiratorially, the other professors curiously following suit to hear her words. “It’s called  _ Aristocatch _ , and it’s this awful game where they —”

“Did somebody say  _ ARISTOCATCH? _ ”

Professor Ursula’s eyes shot open wide, face white as a sheet, and across the yard, all three members of the blue team spat out their tea. This was what she had desperately wanted to avoid. Somehow, it had happened. The worst had happened.  _ Akko had heard _ . The older professors struggled to understand her terror as the girl chucked her broom down, body tensed and vibrating with excitement, and looked straight at the blue team.

Who immediately just  _ scattered _ .

Diana was the first off the ground, already sprinting towards her broom. Hannah and Barbara were moving only a moment later, the former bolting to the treeline and the latter just barely dodging the swipe of Akko’s arms before following suit. Amanda immediately kicked her legs out and rolled backwards out of her fallen chair, pointing to the girls with a devilish glee in her eyes.

“GET THEIR ASSES!”

All hell broke loose as the rest of the girls finally jumped to their feet, all tasks abandoned for their sole important goal: Aristocatch. Akko had invented it, like many of the games they played, not long after the blue team had officially been inoculated into her inner circle. She was rather proud of how it worked, how the blue team insisted that they hated it when they really enjoyed it, how they’d scold her, afterwards, “Akko,  _ what _ did we say,  _ how many times do we have to tell you—  _ ” she loved it all. The rules were simple; catch the aristocrats, put ‘em in a box; get them all in the box, the green and red teams win. If any got away, then the blue team won, fair and square. But other than that, everything was fair game, and every girl took advantage of that.

Akko sprinted after Barbara, intent on making up lost ground. Her athletic build easily allowed her to catch up with the girl, but experience had taught Barbara to frantically pull her wand out before it was too late. Pointing her wand wildly backward, she shouted out a weak earth buster spell, attempting to at least slow her pursuer down long enough to escape.

Experience had taught Akko many things too, and the brunette narrowly dodged the now-choppy earth by barreling to the right. Nearly tripping, she steadied herself with a hand on the ground and pivoted back towards Barbara. Her front foot glowed a subtle green as she cast the leg strengthening spell — a spell she was proud to show off after weeks of practice,  _ precisely _ for this occasion — and her next step launched her towards Barbara as a brown and purple blur.

The two went down with a thud, Akko’s arms wrapped tight around Barbara’s waist, and the athlete managed to roll to her feet, Barbara trapped in her arms like a captured princess. “I got one!” she crowed, lifting Barbara high above her head as the girl  _ squealed _ and  _ kicked _ , trying desperately to act upset despite the undeniable joy in her eyes. Akko sprinted back towards the tables with her friend secure in her arms, shrieking for Akko to put her down. In all the chaos of trying to wiggle free, she completely missed when Constanze set up the ‘jail’: a collapsible magitronic box, full of pillows and topped with a protective shield that allowed aristocratic girls in, not out. Constanze had built it not long after the game’s inception, when the girls couldn’t stop the blue team from just leaving after being caught, and so the object was a testament to how many times the blue team had already met this fate. She beckoned to Akko, who once again raised Barbara high over her head, the girl’s unintelligible pleas lost to the wind as Akko’s arms wound back.

“GET DUNKED!” she screamed, and hurled Barbara through the shield. The girl was barely speaking now, reduced to a bubbly mess of laughter and shrieks as she hit the pillows with a thud.

The professors couldn't speak, opting instead to simply watch, frozen in shock. It was as if they were watching some sort of blood sport dug up from the annals of witch history. They could only look on as the remaining members of the blue team struggled to escape the five terrors at their heels, all grinning like maniacs.

Hannah had managed to make it to the treeline and clung to a high-hanging branch for dear life while Amanda prowled at the base of the tree, Jasminka running to catch up. Amanda was a pure predator in these games, completely aware of how terrified she made her prey and absolutely  _ loving _ it. Hannah was almost always caught by her, and it basically became law — Amanda was the group’s certified Hannah-catcher, and the sheer number of times the redheads clashed was enough to make a lesser woman cry.

Amanda eyed Hannah with a devilish grin. “You know, never pegged you as the tree-hugging type. And here I thought you had no heart.”

“ _ O’Neill _ . I will  _ murder _ you if you come anywere near me,” Hannah hissed, hiding her mirth ( _ “Mirth? What mirth? I hate this game, you can all die in a ditch— ” _ ) behind years of learned propriety and pure determination.

“Oh yeah? You said that last time too. You rich girls all bark and no bite?” Amanda barely dodged a blast of magic aimed at her head, the grass turning a sickly yellow at her feet. It wouldn’t have been enough to seriously injure — Hannah wouldn’t do that to her newer friend even if she were  _ really _ mad — but it definitely would’ve  _ hurt _ . She always made sure of that.

Amanda grinned, backing up a little bit and glancing over her shoulder to where Jasminka was approaching. Bouncing on the balls of her feet, she ran towards her with a whoop, taking her wand out in the process. 

“Jasna, gimme a boost!”

Amanda leapt, and the larger girl caught her with ease, hands outstretched like a springboard for her nimble friend. She easily absorbed Amanda’s momentum, taking just one step back before pushing up  _ hard _ and sending the girl flying — 

— straight towards Hannah.

Akko was still recovering from the high of catching Barbara when a soot-faced Amanda stampeded over, a screeching and very  _ pissed  _ Hannah slung over her shoulder like a sharp-toothed sack of potatoes. Her face wore a look of utter triumph, though it contorted with pain as Hannah slammed her fists into Amanda’s back, shouting curses at the top of her lungs.

“Outta the way Akk—  _ OW! _ —  _ outta the way!  _ She’s gonna freaking break my damn back at this rate!” Amanda half-yelled, half- _ cackled _ as she sprinted up to Constanze’s box, an amused and teary-eyed Barbara peeking out from inside.

“Han! Use your nails! Your  _ nails _ , this is what we  _ trained _ for!” the raven-haired girl cried, eyes crinkling with laughter.

“BARB! I’m gonna KILL them! I swear to the fucking Nines,  _ by Jennifer’s fucking tits I’m gonna _ —” Her words were cut short as Amanda slammed her body into the jail’s pillows, Akko and Jasminka cheering from behind, Constanze raising a double thumbs up with a Stanbot. Hannah simply lay there, face down and stunned, arms spread out in a ‘T’ and girlfriend wheezing with laughter by her side.

Amanda howled, jumping up onto the table and holding her arms up in victory. A strangled, guttural hiss seemed to rise from Hannah, but Barbara didn’t need to listen hard to understand her muffled words.

“...I’m gonna fucking  _ kill _ her.”

Barbara just laughed.

* * *

Catching Diana was always —  _ always _ — the hardest part.

The girl took to escaping her friends like it was her  _ job _ . Every minute of time with the red and green teams was another minute spent studying their movements, their abilities, their reaction times,  _ all for this moment _ . Her mind was cleared of all else; she was pure focus, pure action, made only for running and escaping and  _ winning this fucking game. _ None of the professors had ever seen this side of Diana, but her friends all knew — deep, deep beneath that prodigal exterior and perfect hair, Diana was utterly prepared to be a jock if it meant teaching her idiot friends a lesson.

A brief flash of instinct was her only warning before she dove to the left, a glass bottle shattering where she once stood. A large, amorphous blob glowing pink and green instantly materialized from the remains, solidifying in a matter of seconds. It would have trapped Diana completely, and was a pain to get out of clothing, which the girl unfortunately knew from experience. A glance over her shoulder revealed Sucy, hand in her bag as she readied another potion. Diana scrambled to her feet.

No one had expected  _ Sucy _ to take to this game. In fact, the first month of playing it she completely ignored the group’s shenanigans, sending half-hearted sighs their way and muttering to no one in particular ( _ “You guys are idiots. If you break my stuff I’m going to poison you.” _ ). But like the rest of her friends, eventually Akko’s excess energy and Amanda’s chaotic rambunctiousness took root in her heart like spores. In time, the girls learned to  _ fear _ the witch — if they didn’t already — for the wicked gleam and focus in her eye that was usually only reserved for the mushrooms she hunted.

Many of the potions she prepared late at night were intended for this purpose. Diana had become somewhat of a pro at dodging her projectiles, so she learned to get creative with her brews, experimentally trying out different area effects as she honed her perfect trap. Even her bottles were customized — she couldn’t be bothered to get in trouble for leaving broken glass all over campus, after all, or cutting her friends to ribbons, so her special potions were encased in hardened enchantments that dissolved upon impact, leaving nothing but magic. As she lobbed potion after potion, Diana swerved to the side, narrowly dodging each as she leapt, rolled, and spun with a grace taught to her by Amanda herself. Soon, all her potions were used up, strewn across the courtyard.

Sucy reached for her wand and simultaneously removed her sash, muttering, “ _ Juras Haras Haras _ ,” allowing the now-animated sash to snake its way over to Diana. Akko would remember the spell from the first time she met Sucy, when the enchanted rope caged her and Lotte as a ‘sacrifice for the Cockatrice’; Diana barely escaped this by diving  _ hard _ , though the sash now finished its course by trapping her broom in an impenetrable cage.

Diana cursed, forcing herself back to her feet. The broom was her main course of escape, and with the delay caused by Sucy’s potions, Akko and Amanda had already caught up to the prodigy. Dodging both girls would be a pain, but Diana was nothing if not just as stubborn; she twirled, ducked, even pushed her pursuers to get away. As she moved, her captured friends cheered on from the confines of the jail.

“Yeah, Diana! Get away! Avenge us— ” Barbara was cut off as Hannah shoved her to the side.

“SHOVE THEIR COMMONER FACES INTO THE DIRT, DIANA!” Hannah  _ roared _ , eyes ablaze. “MAKE THEM  _ BEG _ FOR MERCY!”

The three leaders were equally as nimble, darting around each other, the two predators’ arms outstretched and swiping for a chance to grab their blonde friend. Diana knew she couldn’t keep this up for long; she had eyes on Sucy, Jasminka, and Constanze, and all three would catch up soon. If she were surrounded, she wouldn’t make it — but she had to time this just right. So just as Sucy rounded on Diana’s back, she struck. With a swift grab to Amanda’s collar, Diana flung the redhead back  _ crashing _ into Akko, leaping off of their backs as the two scrambled to untangle themselves and Hannah screeched in triumph. Grabbing her wand midair, Diana shouted, “ _ Tia Freyre! _ ” stepping onto the newly-created magic platform — without her broom, she’d have to settle for the floating spell, instead — and kicked off, hurtling over the other three. Landing behind them gave her enough time to just  _ book it _ as they whirled around, surprised, Sucy inevitably getting knocked over as Akko tried to spring to her feet.

Diana was so close now. Her escape was imminent, and she  _ laughed _ , a short, breathy “hah!” that bore a freedom few ever heard from her as she raced towards the closest hall. It was in her glee that she didn’t notice —  _ no one _ had noticed — when a small vine, green and glowing and just a hair above sluggish, wrapped itself around her ankle and  _ pulled _ .

In a flash she was  _ down _ , more vines sprouting forth and holding her tight. Her mouth moved, but besides a small “huh?” no sound came out; she, and everyone behind, could only watch  _ stunned _ as the last vines flung a thoroughly wrapped Diana up into the air — 

— and into Lotte’s arms.

No one moved. No one could. The freckled girl  _ huffed _ , limbs shaking from the strain of holding Diana up, yet she still pushed up and raised her high, high over her head like an offering to the  _ gods _ , breath shaky and deep, face bearing a fierce pride that rivaled a thousand Odyssean men,

And like a last victorious gladiator, cried, “I GOT  _ DIANA! _ ”

The cheers from the other five were like  _ thunder _ , raw and wild, utterly crazed as Lotte galloped towards the jail, shaking arms still raised, refusing to let them buckle before the deed was done or acknowledge the startled pleas from the girl above her. Akko was screaming ( _ “Lotte! You’re my HERO! Get that aristocrat!” _ ), Amanda was howling; Hannah and Barbara sputtered out no’s as Lotte stood before the magitronic box.

“GET  _ DUNKED _ , DIANA!” she yelled, and chucked the poor girl down. Hannah and Barbara only barely moved out of the way in time to avoid getting crushed.

Professor Ursula couldn’t move. She just couldn’t. Her body was virtually frozen, and if she could think coherently, her body would hardly recognize the command to move, anyways. The cheers from across the grass would haunt her dreams forever. The other faculty didn’t look like they were faring much better, and she was pretty sure Finnelan was destroyed from the moment Barbara’s body hit the pillows. This was it. Her girls were getting expelled. Ursula was already speeding through the five stages of grief when a short chortle startled her.

She and the rest of the professors turned, looking at the Headmistress in surprise as she just chuckled. Which turned into a full-on  _ laugh _ , full of joy and amusement, brimming with a nostalgia for the days Chariot herself was a student, and the other professors couldn’t help but feel the corners of their mouths twitch upwards.

Soon enough they were all laughing, forgetting themselves for a moment, because of  _ course _ this would happen, what else could they expect from the Headmistress, from Kagari, and from her friends?

The sound of laughter surprised the students, who looked up at the faculty, breath still choppy from all their own laughter. Akko cheered and waved a hand at Professor Ursula, and the rest of the girls followed suit, save for those in the box. Diana was still laying in the same position she was thrown, resigned and utterly  _ defeated _ , and her teammates flushed with embarrassment at being exposed in front of their teachers; but it was undeniable that they themselves were on the verge of laughter, and Hannah turned away with a growl to hide her face. As Akko peppered Lotte’s face with kisses and Sucy placed a hand on the girl’s shoulder, Amanda could make out the muffled sounds of Diana’s speech, and leaned in closer to hear her.

“Wh… What’s that, Cavendish?” she wheezed, still grinning. “We can’t —  _ hah _ — we can’t hear you too well.”

Diana was quiet for a moment before she  _ groaned _ , only slightly louder, “Why do we always have to do this. Why are you all so  _ incorrigible _ ...”

Amanda snorted, and the girls burst into another fit of breathless laughter. Akko propped herself up on the table, grinning like always, and bumped Diana’s shoulder with her hand.

“Sorry,” she giggled, “but you know you love us.”

Diana shifted, and didn’t deny it.

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you enjoyed it! thanks for reading!!


End file.
